Santangelo

A 7-month-old boy was among six people who died Sunday afternoon when a car crossed into oncoming traffic on Florida's Turnpike, backing up traffic for hours, the Florida Highway Patrol said. The turnpike was closed just south of Yeehaw Junction after the 2:15 p.m. crash, causing a 15-mile backup in both directions when many travelers were making their way home after the holiday weekend. Three vehicles were involved, but no one was injured in the third vehicle, said Lt. Pat Santangelo, an FHP spokesman.

Danielle Santangelo, a Volusia County woman who was slashed to death and found in an abandoned in a car in woods near Deland, recently advertised herself in a personal ad as the "Girlfriend Next Door," officials said today. The 34-year-old woman was found dead just days after she was reported missing from her Port Orange home. Her throat was slashed and she was shoved in the back seat of the vehicle she was driving — her mother's Chrysler Sebring. Willie Hicks, a convicted DeLand drug dealer, is charged with first-degree murder in her slaying.

A man's mother on Wednesday led Volusia County deputies to her son, Willie Hicks, who is accused of killing Danielle Santangelo. Rose Hicks told deputies with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office that she had seen her son driving Santangelo's red Chrysler Sebring, as well as hearing a woman's moans coming from his apartment. "[Rose Hicks] said that Willie Hicks told her he had put a woman in the red car and didn't want anyone looking inside," the sheriff's report shows. Deputies later arrested Willie Hicks, a convicted felon, at his West Euclid Avenue apartment.

A Florida state trooper who was shot pursuing a car thief is suing for negligence. He is not suing the thief, whom he killed in a gunfight, but the man whose car was stolen.Highway Patrolman Pasco Santangelo, 37, says Henry Clay Faulkner left the engine running in his 1974 Mercedes convertible while withdrawing money from an automatic teller.Florida law makes it illegal for any driver, except drivers of delivery vehicles, not to turn off the engine and remove the key.Bruce Lehr, the lawyer who filed the suit for Santangelo Friday in Dade Circuit Court, said the legal principle is that a reasonable person should have forseen that the car could be stolen and that someone could be hurt.

THE FLORIDA CITRUS Commission Friday hired Daniel L. Santangelo as the new executive director of the Florida Department of Citrus in Lakeland. Santangelo, 48, most recently was president of Just Help Yourself Food Co., a Michigan-based producer and marketer of frozen diet foods. He also has been president of Jason Pharmaceutical Co. and Slim Fast Foods. He spent 12 years in management with Campbell Soup Co., including four years as corporate vice president. Santangelo, who will assume his post on Sept.

MIAMI -- A converted school bus carrying 35 migrant workers crashed into a minivan that was on the wrong side of the road Friday, injuring four people critically, the Florida Highway Patrol said. The minivan was heading northbound on Krome Avenue in west Miami-Dade County when the driver, Jose Martinez, 40, fell asleep and lost control of the vehicle, sending it spinning into the southbound lane, highway patrol Lt. Pat Santangelo said. The bus, which was heading south from Belle Glade to Homestead Air Force Base, slammed into the minivan about two miles south of Okeechobee Road, Santangelo said.

NORTH MIAMI -- A hit-and-run crash that killed a woman Sunday triggered multiple collisions and closed Interstate 95 for more than five hours, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Laquinta T. Brunson, 25, of Miami was pronounced dead at the scene, Lt. Pat Santangelo of the Patrol said. Authorities said a witness reported a Dodge Intrepid traveling erratically in the northbound lane about 4 a.m. before striking Brunson's Mitsubishi. The Mitsubishi spun around and struck a barrier wall, then was hit by two oncoming vehicles, Santangelo said.

Deputies in Volusia County now believe the vehicle they found Wednesday with a dead body inside is the same vehicle they've been looking for in the search for a missing Port Orange woman. Late Wednesday, Volusia officials confirmed that the victim found in a car is an adult woman with "trauma to her body. " Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said the death "is being treated as a homicide. " "The victim's identification won't be released until it's confirmed through an autopsy by the Volusia County Medical Examiner's Office on Thursday," Davidson said in a statement about 7:53 p.m. Port Orange police said earlier this week that they've been searching for 34-year-old Danielle Santangelo, who has been missing since Monday when she left her residence on Bent Oak Drive.

Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your article on Mr. October (Steve Doyle, Mr. October is born, Oct. 18). It really took me back to that night. I am a lifelong Yankee fan and I found it a bit ironic that as we look at Oct.18 as a day to reflect on one of the great moments in Yankee history, we also have to now look at this date as one of the saddest. I will truly miss Joe Torre. SUE SANTANGELO Orlando

Sheila Drummond didn't need to see her hole-in-one. She heard it. Drummond, blinded by diabetes 26 years ago, experienced the highlight of her golfing career Sunday, recording an ace on the 144-yard, par-3 fourth hole at Mahoning Valley Country Club in Lehighton, Pa. Playing with her husband and coach as well as two friends in a steady rain, the 53-year-old Drummond hit a driver on the hole. The shot cleared a water hazard, flew between traps and landed on the green, where it hit the flagstick before dropping into the hole.

MIAMI -- A converted school bus carrying 35 migrant workers crashed into a minivan that was on the wrong side of the road Friday, injuring four people critically, the Florida Highway Patrol said. The minivan was heading northbound on Krome Avenue in west Miami-Dade County when the driver, Jose Martinez, 40, fell asleep and lost control of the vehicle, sending it spinning into the southbound lane, highway patrol Lt. Pat Santangelo said. The bus, which was heading south from Belle Glade to Homestead Air Force Base, slammed into the minivan about two miles south of Okeechobee Road, Santangelo said.

NORTH MIAMI -- A hit-and-run crash that killed a woman Sunday triggered multiple collisions and closed Interstate 95 for more than five hours, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Laquinta T. Brunson, 25, of Miami was pronounced dead at the scene, Lt. Pat Santangelo of the Patrol said. Authorities said a witness reported a Dodge Intrepid traveling erratically in the northbound lane about 4 a.m. before striking Brunson's Mitsubishi. The Mitsubishi spun around and struck a barrier wall, then was hit by two oncoming vehicles, Santangelo said.

A motorist was killed and a child riding with her was in critical condition Friday after they were thrown from a car that tumbled over a guardrail on Florida's Turnpike in south Osceola County. This is thought to be the first fatality involving a crossover accident on a section of the turnpike where guardrails have been installed, said Lt. Pat Santangelo, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman. The car nearly collided with an oncoming sport utility vehicle that spun into the rail. The woman, Giselle Calderin, 22, of Miami, and three children were traveling north in a 2005 Toyota Scion near mile marker 197 about four miles north of Yeehaw Junction about 1 p.m. Calderin lost control of the car for unknown reasons, and it rolled over into the median, Santangelo said.

CENTRAL FLORIDA - Three people were injured on Florida's Turnpike just south of the Osceola County line on Thursday after a crossover accident involving a tree-service truck, the Florida Highway Patrol said. Roger David Caceres, 28, of Miami-Dade County was southbound in a 2000 Ford pickup operated by Asplundh Tree Service near mile-marker 180, a few miles south of the Fort Drum service plaza and about 35 miles north of Fort Pierce. Lt. Pat Santangelo said Caceres, who was traveling with Francisci Tursio and Freddy Cruz, lost control of the pickup about 1:30 p.m. in heavy rain, spun counter-clockwise across the grassy median and into a northbound lane.

JAMES G. DONOVAN, 88, U.S. representative from Manhattan in the 1950s, died Monday. Donovan, a former state senator long active in Tammany Hall politics, was elected to the House in 1950 as a Democrat. In 1956 he ran as a Republican and was defeated by the Democrat-Liberal candidate, Alfred Santangelo. He later returned to practicing law.

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Four people, including two children, died in a head-on crash on Florida's Turnpike in Broward County on Saturday, authorities said. A fifth person, a 6-year-old child, was injured but survived after a 2001 Honda and a 1995 Chrysler carrying four people collided on the turnpike around 12:45 a.m. Saturday, Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Pat Santangelo said. The driver of the Honda was identified as Shalyn F. Paskel, 20, of Coconut Creek. Mary Allison Jones, 37, of Lauderhill, was driving the Chrysler, the FHP said.

BOCA RATON -- A man was killed Saturday when his car veered into the path of a tractor-trailer west of Boca Raton, state troopers said. Kevin L. Jones, 27, of Coconut Creek, was driving north on Florida's Turnpike at 6 a.m. when his Hyundai began drifting into the path of a Sterling 18-wheeler loaded with new automobiles, Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Pat Santangelo said. Truck driver Jose R. Gonzalez, an employee of Allied Systems Ltd. of Atlanta, was not speeding but the impact sent Jones' car off the highway, Santangelo said.